Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

On several occasions last term I called for a debate on the lack of law and order, and we failed to get that debate. We are three weeks into the new year and already there have been eight murders, gangland crime, gun crime and knife crime. It seems to be a plague in the country at present. There seems to be no deterrent. There is no fear in the law. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform seems incapable of addressing the problems before us. I ask that the Minister comes to the House to address the area of law and order.

Yesterday Senator Keaveney and I spoke about the car bomb attack on Peadar Heffron, the PSNI officer. There seems to be a considerable rise in dissident republicanism in recent times. A number of 600 pound bombs - this is larger than the Omagh bomb - have been planted, but thankfully they did not go off. Recruitment among such dissidents in Northern Ireland has recently reached a high point, as has been commented upon by the PSNI. My understanding, however, is that same type of recruitment among young people is going on in this State as we speak into these dissident republican gangs.

I want to know whether the Garda has the necessary resources, including intelligence gathering, to tackle this problem. It is imperative that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform addresses that issue also, in the Seanad, to keep Members informed of developments in this regard because these thugs certainly present a threat to this State and we should use all the means at our disposal to nip this recruitment campaign in the bud.